In situ hybridization methods are widely used in the screening and testing of patients for medical conditions, particularly cancer. Successful in situ hybridization procedures depend, in part, on using hybridization probes at an appropriate, precisely measured concentration. Inaccurate results, including patient misdiagnoses, frequently occur when hybridization probes are used at an inappropriately high or low concentration.
Standard in situ hybridization procedures typically involve the preparation of a hybridization solution having a desired concentration of probe. To accomplish this, a precise amount of probe from a stock solution is measured and added to a particular volume of hybridization buffer using a micropipette. Errors in micropipetting, therefore, can result in hybridization solutions having suboptimal concentrations of probes, leading to high levels of background signal when probe concentrations are too high or insufficiently detectable signals when probe concentrations are too low.
Accordingly, there is a need to develop simplified and reliable in situ hybridization procedures that do not require the use of micropipettes to measure precise amounts of probe for the preparation of hybridization solutions having specific probe concentrations.